The taking-down of Christmas decorations on 6th January – the Twelfth Day – signifies that normal, non-festive daily life is back. That the drudge of school or work is biting hard, and you’re wondering how soon it is until half-term or the Easter break. Similarly, for me, the post-holiday version of this is the day my duty-free cigarettes run out. I can no longer live on the fading perfume of a foreign nation. I’m back in Berlin. And, as of later today, I will no longer be able to scoot a couple of metres in my chair to grab a fresh pack of fags from the nice duty free pile, I’ll have to trudge down the shops. Oh, the trials of life…

Anyway, after seeing this and this on Boing Boing about tilt-shift photography, I fancied having a go at trying to fake it in Photoshop. Before I go on, you should know that the use I get out of Photoshop is similar to using an articulated lorry to go to the shops to pick up some chewing gum. Doing pixelly drawings doesn’t really use more that three or four tools. One of the things I want to do this year is learn how to use Photoshop properly; to, if you will, shop my photos. So I spent some time Gaussian blurring parts of digital photos I took on various holidays, and it was fun.

It does make everything look like teeny models and not real at all. The colours are so vivid too. That’s cool! I’m going to try it… so you just blur out bits of the photo (I’m rubbish with photoshop too).

Yeh, Gaussian blur (with some feathering) a selection of foreground. Do same for backgrouund. Then I played with the levels, the contrast, and the Match Color stuff to make it a bit more vibrant and ‘fake’.

Great job in PS, I had a go myself after seeing it on BoingBoing but without much commitment, or success, and i couldn’t bodge a tilt shift lens on my slr anyway (was an impressive gaffa tape job though).

Thanks for great inspiration! First I was amazed by all the miniature stuff, ’til I realized it was real. Then I got stuck in the links, surfing away, fascinated by the macro feeling in the pictures. Then I thought “I can do that!” and now I am just a click from experimenting. Thanks!

Ooh, I like those! And I’m a photographer so perhaps that’s flattering to you rather than totally random. In fact I may have a go myself, as its 4pm Friday. For the benefit of pauldwaite, the blurring mimics a shallow depth of field which is a common feature of macro photography due to some maths thingy about focal length and proximity of the subject. (Ok, I’m a photographer but not a very technical one!) Like the swimming pool and the Miami cityscape best.